


Tribulation

by depressionjutsu (fullfeature)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Paralysis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 08:15:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11733138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullfeature/pseuds/depressionjutsu
Summary: They are outmanned. Outgunned. Keith always knew he’d go out in fire and smoke.





	Tribulation

 

“Did you mean what you said? When you said we were nothing without Shiro,” Lance asks. His face is dirty, blood flaking off the high points of his cheekbones. His voice is calm, though, a bit rough from the exertion.   
  


Keith turns to him. “Does it matter? This is where we are now, with Shiro or without him.” There is a distant explosion, Keith can feel the heat wave from behind the metal.    
  


Lance laughs. His head tilts back against the wall. His eyes are glazed in pain, wet, they slip shut as a wry grin flits across his face. “You never could answer a question, could you mullet boy?” His head turns towards Keith, his tongue running across his cut lip. “It matters to me. Did you mean it?”   
  


Keith turns away. He can’t… handle that right now. Keith can’t handle most emotions on good days. “I think they’re coming this way.” He leans out, bayard lost and replaced with a blaster. He fires a few warning shots.   
  


“Lizard people?” Lance tries to lean too, but hisses. “You got it, buddy. I’ll cheer you on.” His bayard sits at his feet, dropped from when he’d barrel rolled into cover.   
  


Keith nods, not looking back. Lizard people. They’re fast, slim. He targets their legs. Those don’t grow back. There are four of them, then three, then two, then none. He whips around, trying to find the last one.   
  


There is a shout, “Keith!” As he’s tackled to his back, the lizard dropping from the ceiling. Lance is there bayard in hand. The blast takes Keith’s breath away, as well as the corpse that falls on his chest.   
  


Lance pulls it off, grunting. “I save your sorry ass again Kogane, and you owe me big time.” He watches Keith try to sit up. Lance’s side was hit by something, small shards poking from his suit. His wounds are still bleeding.   
  


“I think it got me,” Keith says. He hadn’t really been able to feel anything before, but now there is a distinct nothingness from where his legs should be. When he looks a barb is plunged into his shin. The toxin from the Lumerians lasts only so long when the barb is removed, but if it isn’t the toxin is constantly secreted into the bloodstream. It’s both paralyzing and numbing, with a moderate effect time once pulled.   
  


They both know this. It had been the biggest source of contention about infiltrating the planet. “I’m gonna take it out,” Lance tells him. There is the clatter of Lance’s body armor hitting the ground. Keith wants to yell at him, but it’s getting harder to think. That’s not the toxin though, It’s the panic. Keith knows he’s already bleeding in multiple places, and this would only add to the list. He tries to move his hands. Keith thinks he can feel his fingers twitch, just barely.   
  


Lance leans over to do it, hands shaking. A torn piece of cloth is wrapped around his hand. “Keith, don’t look.” Keith wearily tries turns his head.  _ Can’t  _ he tries to say. The barb is long. Lodged through the front of his leg. Keith tries to remember if there are any main arteries there. Mostly he remembers Shiro. The man had been a TA in his medical aid and support class. He held study sessions once a month that Keith attened like his grade depended on it. He wore a light blue sweater-vest the day Keith worked enough nerve to ask him for help. The conversation had lasted less than a minute. Keith replayed it in his head over and over again for the rest of the week.    
  


“Don’t bite me.” Keith hears Lance say. Then a rough palm is tilting his head toward the left. The shirt piece is from Lance’s collar. Lance’s eyes are still wet, but they are more aware than before. Hs torn shirt let’s Keith see his prominent collarbones, not a mark on them. His skin is smooth, spotless. Privately, in the face of death, Keith allows himself to admit that Lance’s confidence came from a solid foundation. His eyes are dark blue, like the deep sea.   
  


Lance is smiling at him when he does it. Not a full smile but a soft one, fond. If Keith could scream he would have. His vision swims, blue, white, grey.  Lance is holding the barb still when Keith’s eyes are able to refocus. It’s four inches of spikes, small plates in between them that are sharp like blades. Keith wonders if the pain will hit him slowly or all at once.   
  


Lance laughs. “This is what you cry over? We’re fine, bud. We’re gonna get off this reptile hell and we’re gonna find your man.” Keith can’t feel Lance’s hands wipe his tears, but he can imagine. He didn’t even know he was crying.   
  


They are going to die here. Keith is thankful he can’t speak. He is not Lance. He is not Shiro. He has no humor, no parental nature. Instead he is honest, pessimistic, rash. He is not the leader they deserved. Lance is not privy to his musings. He is starting to stand.   
  


“Keith i’m going to find help while I’m still running off adrenaline. I…” Lance turns towards him. His face is grim, but there is a finality, a fire, in his eyes that Keith recognizes. Lance often had the look after failed paladin training sessions, right before he told Allura to run it again. “I don’t blame you. If I come back I want you to know that. I also…” He is on his knees in front of Keith now. Lance takes his face in hand again. “I wish I didn’t feel the need to do this now. Keith I never hated you.” Keith wishes he could feel. Instead there is nothing where there should have been Lance’s lips against his. Keith can twitch his fingers and toes, but that is not going to hold Lance close.   
  


Instead the paladin stands. He puts on his armor with only the slightest tremor in his hands, his bayard shakes before his steadies himself. He does not look back.  

**Author's Note:**

> I love Keith and I love suffering 
> 
> I never feel like my Lance is IC so sorry about that. 
> 
> Comments & Kudos appreciated!  
> I might come back to this if the mood strikes. I almost went a Shklance direction.


End file.
